About

Hello and Welcome,

I’m Kevin Metzger, a successful 34 year old father of 2 with one on the way. My wife Melanie and I have been married for 8 years and have known each other for 10. I met her the day I moved to Atlanta for my first “real” job with IBM after college. We met at a U-hall. She was there returning her trailer and I was returning my truck. She had driven from Colorado to Atlanta without backing up but had to back in at the U-hall facility and needed help. I’ve been in love with her from the day we met.

We had a huge wedding that was wonderful and then when we decided to have children while I was working on my MBA and working full time. Unfortunately we lost our first pregnancy at 22 weeks. It was absolutely devastating. However after a few months she became pregnant again and we managed to make it to 32 weeks when our first daughter came early. She was held in the hospital for 3 weeks because she wasn’t feeding properly and she had a stage 1 brain bleed while she was in the hospital.

During those 3 weeks I was in a busy period at work, finishing my MBA and going to the hospital every day. I would wake up at 6:00 AM and go to the office. I worked until 4:00 PM when I would leave for school. I attended classes until 10:00 PM at night and then went to the hospital until 1:00 AM. Looking back I have no idea how I did it all.

Well after our daughter came home and started to grow my wife realized that she wasn’t progressing properly. I said it was just because she was a preme. The doctor said it was just because she was a perme. BUT my wife insisted something wasn’t right. She got the doctor to agree to send my daughter to PT (physical therapy) at 6 months and my daughter began to slowly make progress. At about a year our PT told my wife she thought there was some real developmental delays and that she should get the doctor to send her to a neurologist. My wife again convinced the doctor to write a referral and we went to see the neurologist. They recommended an MRI. Seeing my 1 year old daughter put to sleep for an MRI is one of the scariest things I can remember in my life. Well when the results came back the doc said she had Cerebral Palsy. That changed our lives….

I was 5 or 6 years old and sitting at the table in our basement trying to write my b’s but I kept writing them backwards. Then I was asked to write and e and that came out backwards too. I would write the letter 30 times in a row and still do it backwards. My father was frustrated and I was crying. We kept doing our best my father to teach me and I trying to learn but I just couldn’t get it. My mother new something was wrong but didn’t know what. She began taking me to various doctors, eye doctors, neurologist, physicians, we finally went to Philly to see some specialist and he administered these tests that took hours and drained the life out of me. I remember after those tests my parents took me out to eat at a fancy restaurant and I had my first grilled reuben. That may be where I gained my obsession with food, but that’s a topic I cover on my Squidoo pages 100 Day Challenge Health and Fat Man Running. Anyway those tests revealed that I had something called Dyslexia. It’s some form of learning “disability” and a few years later I was also diagnosed with ADD.

Today I have a Masters of Business Administration from Georgia State University in eCommerce and Marketing and an undergraduate degree is in Computer Information Systems from Clemson University. I was recognized by the Computer Honers society for graduating with above a 3.5 GPA in my computer science courses and I was a member of Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity in undergraduate.

Professionally I have worked for or consulted with IBM, Delta, Grady Hospital, UPS, and Sage Sage Software. My career experience includes consulting, development, and functional analysis at IBM, Delta, and Grady Hospital. I moved to UPS and worked as a functional analyst in the IS department until completing my MBA when I moved to the Customer Information Management department as a Senior Business Analyst and project manager. I then moved to Sage Software where I have held the positions of Senior Business Analyst, Acquisitions Manager and Relationship Manager. I am responsible for many successes with all the above companies and their customers.

I could not read until the fourth grade and I developed an interest in computers because by using it I didn’t have to improve my hand writing and spelling. I also was lucky enough to grow up with one of my best friends having Cerebral Palsy and he is a Lawyer today.

This blog is about my experiences as a dyslexic, ADD dad of a daughter with CP. I will discuss information on the disabilities, and on how I, my daughter, my wife and our family as a whole deal with them. You will not find whining on this blog and you will not find someone who feels sorry for himself or his daughter. I have learned that we all have our own abilities and anyone can be successful. I consider myself very successful and my daughters and my wife are some of the most incredible people I know. Maybe I’ll tell my wife’s story about loss too….

If you have questions please ask, I love to answer questions. If there is a topic you would like me to blog on please ask, I can always use good ideas. I look forward to getting to know the community that joins this blog. Finally, I am the only editor of these pages, therefore you will see spelling and grammar mistakes, if you don’t like them you can leave and no one will be offended. If however, you want to understand what it’s like to grow a family and career and deal with the “disabilities” mentioned then stick around and read it anyway. You Just might learn something about you!